Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on Last updated

133 Comments

4.86 from 34 votes
4 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
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Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders with just five ingredients and 30 minutes these are the PERFECT gameday treat! A sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy appetizer.

Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders with just five ingredients and 30 minutes these are the PERFECT gameday treat! A sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy appetizer.

Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders

Triple this Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders recipe, I promise they’re that good. You won’t even miss the breading in most chicken strips because instead you have CRISPY BACON.

Plus its sweet and sticky and bacon-y.

Five ingredients in this Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders!

Serving ideas/Flavor ideas for your Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders:

  • Want it a bit spicier? Add in ¼ teaspoon of crushed red pepper or a squirt of Sriracha.
  • If you want an even deeper caramel flavor, try dark brown sugar.
  • Serve with ranch dressing or honey mustard for dipping sauces.
  • Have lots of paper towels to save smears from your couches as people are watching the game.
  • If you’d prefer to make this with boneless thigh meat cut the thighs in three strips.

You can also cut your chicken pieces into bite sized chunks and cook them off as bites (I am making these for the next Dodgers game and I will snap some pictures!).

Crispy, sweet, sticky and BACON. Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders

Looking for more appetizer recipes:

More Bacon goodness?

The perfect treat for your game day parties! Brown Sugar Bacon Chicken Tenders!

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Dinner, then Dessert

Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders

Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders with just five ingredients and 30 minutes these are the PERFECT gameday treat! A sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy appetizer.
Yield 4 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders with just five ingredients and 30 minutes these are the PERFECT gameday treat! A sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy appetizer.
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Ingredients
 

  • 2 chicken breasts boneless skinless
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 8 strips bacon

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Cut each chicken breast into 4 long, thin chicken strips.
  • In a bowl add the brown sugar, salt and pepper.
  • Add the chicken tenders and toss in the brown sugar.
  • Wrap the chicken in a strip of bacon and put into your baking dish.
  • Sprinkle over the remaining brown sugar.
  • Cook for 20-25 minutes or until bacon is cooked through and crisp (as pictured).

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 416kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 101mg | Sodium: 720mg | Potassium: 541mg | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 50IU | Vitamin C: 1.3mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 0.8mg

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Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders with just five ingredients and 30 minutes these are the PERFECT gameday treat! A sticky, sweet, salty, crunchy appetizer.
The perfect treat for your game day parties! Brown Sugar Bacon Chicken Tenders!
Crispy, sweet, sticky and BACON. Bacon Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  2. Sabrina do you have a cook book?? Your recipes are just wonderful!! Like these bacon brown sugar chicken tenders yummmmmmmm!! your recipes are so simple and so good.
    Most items needed are in a regular grocery store. They are so simple anyone can make them. You have created recipes that are not intimidating at all. They work for untrained regular cooks. All I can say is you are awesome. I look forward to your recipes. Keep thinking of us untrained cooks that want to take cooking to a new level. Hugs dear lady!!

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, what a sweet comment. I don’t have a cookbook yet, but hopefully one day! I love what I do and I love hearing that people like you appreciate it. 😀

      Reply

  3. Sabrina,

    I have used your Chicken Marsala recipe and my son thought I called Olive Garden to order some for supper and I told him no I made it from your recipe and he loves it so every time we have chicken we have your Chicken Marsala.

    Reply

  4. Thank you for posting another great looking recipe. After reading the ingredients, my twin daughters asked if we could substitute brown sugar for maple syrup. Not having used maple syrup as a topping compared to syrup being mixed into other ingredients, my concerns are in possible burning. Any thoughts?

    Reply

    1. So sorry I missed this! You can use maple syrup, it shouldn’t burn but keeping an eye on it is always a good idea. I’d love to hear how it turns (or turned) out.

      Reply

        1. I’ve never tested it using one so I’m not comfortable giving a recommendation. You might be able to find a recipe online with similar ingredients using an air fryer and follow that as a guideline. Good luck!

          Reply

          1. I haven’t tested it using an air fryer. I’d love to know how it turns out if you decide to try. Enjoy!

          1. I’m having a huge issue. I’ve attempted twice. I’m making about 15 to 20 at a time in a glass baking dish. I guess because of the brown sugar it’s creating to many juices and I can not get the bacon to fully cook. Tried 40 minutes instead of 25 and I also even turned on the broil after the 40 minutes for about another 5 minutes to speed up the top part of them cooking and then when I pulled them out the bottom was still raw. Idk what to do!! Please help!!!

          2. If it’s releasing too much liquid, try placing them on balled up pieces of foil or some time of cooking rack above the baking dish. This will allow the tenders to be raised up and not sit in the liquid. Hope this helps!

  8. We will be making these for a second time! My family loves it! We make it a meal with some homemade mac and cheese and steamed broccoli for sides! Delicious!

    Reply

  10. I use a 9×13 glass baking dish with non stick foil lining it. My chicken was swimming in bacon fat and brown sugar soup! The brown sugar did not carmelize and just melted into the fat. Maybe cooking on an elevated grate on a deep sided cooking sheet would work better? It still tasted fine but was really hoping for that sticky carmelly goo to lick off my fingers…lol! Glad a tried recipe before a party. I will try again…wish me luck!

    Reply

  12. Really easy to make ! Awesome combination of ingredients. Taste soooo good.
    The recipe popped up on my Social Media feed and I gave it a try. Happy I did.

    Reply

  14. Made these for a dinner party. After baking I cut them into bite size pieces. Served with a simple homemade sweet/sour sauce.
    2tbl minced garlic, soy sauce, apple cider vinagar
    1/3 cup honey. Simmer until reduced to dipping consistancy.
    Yummy!

    Reply

  16. Made the brown sugar chicken bites, added chili powder to the brown sugar. Family loves them. Make every Super Bowl. It’s the first thing to go.

    Reply

    1. Just make sure not to overcrowd the pan as that will affect the cooking time. It might take an additional 10-15 minutes or so. You’ll be able to see when it’s done.

      Reply

  20. I had made these and had about 10 on a tray computer graphics design but my bacon did not get brown and crispy like your picture I had a Lotta juice in the pan and I don’t know what I did wrong could you please tell me what I might’ve done wrong

    Reply

    1. It sounds like your chicken released more liquid than mine. You can elevate it by placing it on tin foil or a cooking tray so it’s not sitting in the liquid next time. Enjoy!

      Reply

  22. I did this in a foil pan on a covered outdoor grill and turned them about half way thru. So simple yet so good. This recipe is a keeper!

    Reply

  23. I made this with sausage at our last family gathering and they were a huge hit… the whole tray was devoured in minutes… my husband keeps asking me to make more so I’m thinking I’ll try this version this time 🙂 hope it’s just as yummy! .. the only thing the sausage recipe had different was a few dashes of course mustard, the tangyness was great. Also I cooked it in the crock pot on low over night, only gently stirring a few times. I’m going to stick to the same recipe as before but use chicken instead. Hope it works out 🙂 thanks for this recipe, it sparked my imagination to try something new with an old recipe.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for sharing, Crystal! I love when my recipes inspire my readers to come up with their own creative ideas!

      Reply

  27. I made this and it is delicious wife approves a little tip when your chicken is done if you want a little crispy bacon turn on your broiler and perfect also I made homemade honey mustard dipping sauce with Cayenne pepper!

    Reply

    1. The tenders might have created too much liquid during the cooking process. Next time, you can try elevating them by placing them on a cooking rack or ball up little balls of foil.

      Reply

  30. Not sure if I did something wrong – maybe the bacon I used is too thick but it took 45 minutes to crisp the bacon so the chicken was a little over-cooked

    Reply

    1. I’m not sure, it couldn’ve been the thickness but next time you can always pop it under the broiler to crisp the bacon more in a quicker time. Hope this helps!

      Reply

  31. Is there any nutritional information on this recipe. I need to know the amount of calories, grams of sugar and carbs. I plan on making these for my friend’s 11 year old son who was recently diagnosed as type 1 diabetic. Looking for low carb recipes to make for him to eat. I think he would really love these — they look YummY!! Thank you for any info. you can give me!!

    Reply

    1. Sorry I don’t have the nutritional facts for recipes on the site but I know there are a lot of free resources on the internet from when I’ve cooked for clients with low carb diets.

      Reply

      1. NUTRITION INFORMATION
        Yield: 4 Servings, Amount per serving: 416 calories, Calories: 416g, Carbohydrates: 27g, Protein: 29g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 101mg, Sodium: 720mg, Potassium: 541mg, Sugar: 26g, Vitamin A: 1g, Vitamin C: 1.6g, Calcium: 2.8g, Iron: 4.4g

        Reply

  33. I know the name is not such a big factor, as is the recipe itself, but isn’t it technically Bacon-WRAPPED Brown Sugar Chicken Tenders? Looks very good, and I think I will mention it to a good friend of mine, and see if they will make it for me; in fact, I will print out the recipe for them. Thanks for this idea!

    Reply

  36. This recipe is amazing. I added red pepper flakes to the brown sugar mixture just to give it a little spice. Absolutely amazing. And easy to prep!! Thank you for this recipe!! Also, I did put my chicken on a rack inside my pan to make the bacon a little crispier.

    Reply

  37. Gorgeous, I also brushed mine with a touch of Maple Syrup before sprinkling with the left over sugar, helps the bacon crisp up and gives that extra little yummyness.

    Reply

  39. I’ve been making this for years. It’s so delicious! We had it for Christmas dinner last year, with twice baked stuffed potatoes and blue cheese salads. Amazing. My granddaughter’s are coming tomorrow and have already y requested this!

    Reply

    1. So glad you enjoyed the taste! You can always place them on top of balled up foil or place a baking rack on top of the sheet pan so they sit a bit higher to crisp up.

      Reply

    2. Just made them and had same problem with bacon not crispy. I put the broiler on high for a couple of minutes for each side and bacon got nice and crisper. I had used a cooking rack which raised the chicken away from the bottom of the pan.

      Reply

  41. These were very good. I added crushed red pepper flakes for a little sweet heat. My bacon didn’t get crispy, though ?

    Reply

    1. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Sounds like the tenders might have created too much liquid. Next time, try elevating them by placing them on a cooking rack or ball up little balls of foil.

      Reply

    1. They would be amazing with just about anything 🙂 I like macaroni and cheese or my rainbow roasted vegetables as sides for this. What did you end up putting with it?

      Reply

  43. Hello! These look amazing! I am thinking of making them as an appetizer for super bowl. Are there any changes to be made if I wanted to make them as bites? I think 1.5 inch pieces on toothpicks would mean less sticky fingers. Thanks

    Reply

  45. These are so easy to make and really good.  I made them just for a quick dinner and had plenty leftover but I used the chicken strips already cut so you may have to use two pieces of bacon.

    Reply